Criteria for My Celebration Vessel

As you’ve discovered in this lesson, ceramic artworks can take many different forms and can be good in many different ways. As you viewed the pieces in the lesson, probably some appealed to you more right away than others. As you read more about them, you may have discovered qualities to appreciate that were not obvious. You may even have liked a piece more after you learned why someone else thinks it is good.

You will be making your own artwork as you proceed through the lessons in this program. When your work is completed, you will be successful not only if you have made something you like personally (preference), but also because you have made something that meets one or more criteria for excellence that you decide is/are important. In other words, your work will be most successful, if you like it and it is good.

You will be making a symmetrical vessel of some sort (bowl, dish, jar, bottle, plate, beaker, vase, or other container) and will develop your own repeat pattern to make it more expressive. Your vessel will be about a celebration. The event or situation you celebrate will be your choice. Below are a few events or situations you might want to celebrate:

• A family event (birthday, baptism, quinceañera, bar mitzvah, marriage, reunion, etc.)
• A goal for your future (an educational, social, athletic, recreational, or arts achievement; travel; career; etc.)
• A challenge you have met
• The life of a person you want to remember
• Other

Click to view two celebratory vessels.

• The Greek trophy celebrates a victory and a religious festival.
• The porcelain peach vase made for the Emperor Quinlong (scroll down) can be seen as a celebration of status and refinement.

As you think about what your vessel might celebrate, begin to consider how you (and others) will be able to judge whether it is a good vessel. Click to review just some of the many criteria people sometimes use to judge excellence in ceramics. Identify at least one criterion that has something to do with craftsmanship or technical quality (such as even surface or consistent wall thickness) and at least one that has more to do with expressiveness (such as boldness or gracefulnes).

When you identify criteria, you give your teacher guidance in judging your work, not according to whether s/he likes it, but whether you achieve what you set out to achieve. As you begin to make your vessel, you may discover new directions and change the criteria you wish to meet.

Your teacher will tell you what materials to use, if clay facilities are not available. For example, you might make a symmetrical, round vessel from papier mache or modify an existing wood, metal, glass, paper or plastic vessel.

Checklist
Write about your plans including the items listed below.

1. I identified an event or situation I want to celebrate.
2. I chose the general type of vessel I am considering making (bowl, dish, jar, bottle, plate, beaker, vase, or other container).
3. I identified at least one technical or craftsmanship criterion that I’m considering.
4. I identified at least one expressive criterion that I’m considering
5. OPTIONAL: I submitted a preliminary drawing or paper cutout of the overall shape of my vessel.
6. OPTIONAL: I submitted a drawing (or paper cutout) of one or more shapes that can symbolize the event or situation I plan to celebrate. I’m beginning to think about this/these shapes to make a pattern to decorate my vessel.

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